Alliance Pandaria Introduction
The latest beta patch added the Alliance introduction and reopened Jade Forest, now with a new starting quest line for the Horde and Alliance, as well as new and reworked quests throughout the zone. Today we are taking a look at the first few quests in the new Alliance introduction. Don't miss the part starting from 8:55!

Elite and Heroic Elite Items
The latest patch added a few items that were higher item level than the normal items for that difficulty and tagged as Elite. Now we know that they come from doing the Protectors of the Endless encounter in a harder way. You can see the full listing of the Elite items on the Protectors of the Endless page.

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

These items are obtained by defeating Protector Kaolan last on the Protectors of the Endless encounter.

Raid Release Schedule

Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

We’ve been keeping a very close eye on the feedback players have shared for both Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria raiding. We saw a lot of evidence and heard a lot of feedback which indicated that raid content was a little overwhelming at the beginning of Cataclysm. Our goal is to smooth that out a bit in Mists of Pandaria. Keep in mind, Mogu’shan Vaults opens up one week after Mists of Pandaria launches. And with its Heroic mode even the most seasoned raiders should be pretty busy. Once the raid dungeon has been cleared by a group on normal mode they’ll unlock Heroic mode, a definite ramp up in challenge. Also note, similar to Dragon Soul, Raid Finder mode for Mogu’shan Vaults will be available about one week after the normal raid has been opened.

Rather than putting a lot of pressure on players by opening up sixteen raid bosses in three separate difficulties upon release of the expansion, we hope you’ll have a chance to really dig into the lore, the gorgeous new continent, the amazing new quests, and all of the other goodies that are far too numerable to mention. Our intention here is not to artificially extend the life of the 5.0 content, but rather to pace it better than we have in previous releases. This is why we noted that a few weeks after Mogu’shan Vaults opens, raid instances Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring will become available. These dungeons will still very much be hot on the heels of Mogu’shan Vaults, particularly for the large majority of players progressing through Pandaria.

Here’s a basic breakdown of the pattern we’d like to follow for all upcoming raids: Dungeon opens on normal difficulty —> Heroic mode is unlocked once normal mode is completed —> the Raid Finder version becomes available about one week after the raid’s initial opening. To review all of the latest Mists raid release details, everyone is encouraged to check out our latest blog, Blizzard Insider #45 – Mists of Pandaria – Raid Preview, which has a wealth of exciting new information.

On a final note, thank you to everyone who has been testing the new content, sharing your feedback, and helping us bring you the most epic game possible! It cannot be said enough, but we genuinely appreciate it.

Just curious, why is raid finder being released a week after normal version?
This is a matter of striking a balance between preserving the feeling of guild progression and making the content accessible to players outside of organized guilds. We definitely want to see everyone have a chance to experience Mists of Pandaria raid content, so holding Raid Finder mode for a week feels like a reasonable window of time to accommodate players of all stripes.

For everything that thinks this is a good idea: Get ready to wait months for the second set of raids.
We thought our intent was made pretty clear in the Blizzard Insider article, as well as in my original post. But, if it’ll ease your concern, I’ll be more specific!

Raid dungeons Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Spring are scheduled to be released on normal difficulty four weeks after Mogu'shan Vaults has been opened.

Yup, this is the plan! Barring there aren't any 1s where there should be a 0, you've done your math well.

The reality? The raids won't be completed for September 25th, and they're giving themselves an extra month to actually finish them.
This is 100% untrue. All 16 bosses are on the beta right now and have been tested. To be absolutely clear about why what you said has no basis in reality, once Mists is released we won’t need to apply a patch to the game before we can activate Heart of Fear and Terrace. This means we won’t have an extra month to continue working on these raids, as you’ve suggested.

Blue Posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Upcoming Damage Reductions
You are soon going to see damage go down for several classes and specs in cases where we overshot our targets or fixed bugs that required adjustments. Hunters are likely among these.

I am mentioning this because what inevitably happens is a host of posts across the Internet saying that x is now gutted, won't get a raid slot, needs to reroof, was middle of the pack at best, and so on. It is most helpful to us if you want to argue that your DPS is too low (or high if you are being unusually honest) that you are specific about what situations you are talking about, against who you are comparing numbers and what those numbers are. If the Windwalker is doing 300,000 DPS in your challenge run, chances are that is not our new target.

(As I told my team recently, had I better access to a PC at the moment (I'm a long way from home as you can probably guess by the posting times), I would make a new version of the Ned Stark brace yourself meme image.) (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Content Difficulty and Consumption SpeedThey are adding a FoS for killing heroic bosses in MoP without the nerf. One can only hope that this FoS will disappear once the next tier comes out, otherwise it's a pretty pointless feat of strength.
Yes, those feats of strentgh you mention are the "Cutting Edge" achievements that you may have seen already in some fansites. The idea the developers have right now is that these won't be available once a new raid tier is introduced.

And currently the intention of the developers is to stick with these for future raid tiers.

I have always wondered why on earth blizzard releases % based nerfs that lower the difficulty of a fight through a buff or debuff. I mean by the time the nerfs are released ppl are hardly even geared in normal gear. Wouldn’t a better way to nerf content be to up the drop chance of items in the normal version? After all items are just another way of giving players a buff. Items are supposed to be the hidden in game nerfing that happens all the time jet it seems to hold no weight anymore.

When the time comes where blizzard says ok we have to nerf a raid zone now, they could increase the drop chance of loot in normal to maybe double of what usually drops(or more) then you will gear people faster and they will then be able to enter heroics. This way you are not making normal mode irrelevant to players, your actually making it more relevant.

You buffs/nerfs will be player/guild based and more importantly it will not feel like blizzard is stepping in and dumbing down the fights for you. You still killed the fight unnerfed just like the best guilds, it just took a bit longer.
The decision to implement the debuff is driven by the data the devs have access to. They can see participation and progression and how the numbers change every week in regards to completion rate.

And that data showed them that a large number of raiders was stuck at some point in their progression for multiple weeks and participation was declining.

The developers are aware that not everyone will agree with them (which is something I'll touch a bit later on this reply), but it's important to point out that they're making informed decisions based on comprehensive stats. And those stats tend to validate their reasoning for implementing the debuff/increasing it.

As I've mentioned on this thread in the past, the most advanced raiders that either rarely encounter something they can consider a true block in their progression or can work on them for weeks perceive the debuff as a nerf to content that is already doable (which it certainly is, for them), but it's not reasonable to ask the same from the majority of casual raiding guilds that would like to progress. Those players can't really wipe for weeks or months on a given boss without eventually giving up.

The developers feel it's better, overall, to make those goals in your progression feel more attainable over time before that discouragement to keep raiding comes into play.

Simple answer is of course that they don't know. All that stuff about devs and data is nothing but smoke and mirrors. The planned debuffs are well proclaimed months in advance for one reason only. To keep the majority of the player base subscribed through yet another carrot on a stick.

Boss too hard? "Don't worry lads and lasses it gets nerfed in two weeks time". Ah thats alright then, back to faceroll.
You ask for answers, you get them. And since you don't like them, you just conclude that it's a diversion and that you know what's truly going on. I wonder, why are you replying to the thread, then? I mean, I have the feeling that then, no matter what we say, it's a lost argument unless we say what you want to read. It certainly feels that way.

1.Will there be an achievement or are they planning an achievement for clearing all bosses of the raid on heroic without nerfs? (Cutting the Edge Heroic: for example).

2. Will the be any title rewards from these FoS achievements or are there any plans?
Both questions have the same answer, there're no plans right now. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Attunements and Daily Quest CapDid I miss something? The daily cap is being increased from 25 to at least 48? Is that just the pandaria quests, or does that also include the non-pandaria dailies?
Not increased, removed. And the "around 48 quests available on any given day" means just for Pandaria dailies. Basically, in MoP you decide how many dailies you want to do, it's totally up to you.

How about the attunements for SSC and TK that became Guild wide? Why not implement such attunements?
The developers don't have any plans at this point to bring attunements back. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

What Purpose Does LFR Have?Raiders complain they have to raid LFR to get the improvements.
They don't, really. The set bonuses are there in normal and heroic as well, and the item level is even higher.

Actually, in Mists of Pandaria, each new LFR tier will have an increased minimum ilevel requirement, so there'll be a natural progression path as the expansion goes on. This means that players will start running Heroic dungeons in order to gear up to hit the minimum ilevel for the first tier of LFR, then get gear from this first LFR tier to access the second, and so on.

However, it won't be mandatory to go through the LFR system if you're raiding normal or Heroic raids.

And since you'll probably ask, I'll answer pre-emptively, at this moment the developers are not ready to talk about possible 5-man Heroic dungeons with higher requirements that might come in future Mists of Pandaria patches. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Mana Bandages
I'd have to agree with the earlier observation that mana is simply a resource, whereas health is essential, and the existing bandages can be a last minute life-saver.

A few questions that popped into my mind: Why should mana users get another way to regenerate their resource on top of all the regen abilities and potions they already have available? Isn't the ability to conserve mana and use it wisely part of the challenge of the game? Wouldn't it give mana users an unfair advantage over the classes that don't use mana? Are you suggesting all classes have a bandage-esque way to regenerate their resource? What about classes that regenerate their resource differently, wouldn't this new method be either practically useless or very overpowered? (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Beta Class Balance Analysisit's[healer dps] ignored for the sake of game balancing.
It's not ignored. It's just not as big a priority. We know that if choosing e.g. a Resto shaman instead of a Resto druid increases group dps on fights where grasping for every point of damage is relevant, then it could be a stacking issue. You just have to keep these things in perspective. There haven't been historically many fights where stacking healers for their DPS benefit was relevant, and even if we're talking about 10k DPS you might get the same benefit by having your actual DPS characters step up their game by a teeny bit.

Now the original post about whether Enhance has a no-brainer talent tier is of more concern. It's less of a concern if Resto's spell damage is comparable to Enhancement's spell damage, given that the latter has a lot more going on.

Shaman (Forums)As an Enhancement Shaman, I'm much more concerned about whether Windfury is supposed to activate off special attacks or not (far as I can tell we haven't gotten an answer about that yet).
We’ve just fixed it for the next build to proc off Primal Strike, Stormstrike, and Lava Lash.

Is it intended that stormblast isn't included in that list? Please tell me it was simply an oversight.
Stormblast is included; it should trigger everything that Stormstrike does. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Shaman (Forums)Telluric Currents
As I said in the other thread, the intent of Telluric Currents is for free Lightning Bolts. If the trivial amount of mana gain interests you, that doesn't offend us. We don't believe or intend for it to be a mandatory glyph.

To clear up th history of the mechanic, it was originally intended to be a way for Resto shaman to feel like they could contribute DPS when they didn't need to heal. It wasn't intended as a mana regen mechanic. It absolutely became one when mana pools became high. We try not to make changes just because the design ends up being something not originally intended, as long as we think the gameplay is acceptable. It was reasonably acceptable in say 4.2 and got to the point where we didn't like it in 4.3, but still not worth chnging -- we try to reserve changes for expansions and not patches unless we think they are important. In 5.0 it is time to return the mechanic back to an optional way to contribute some damage for Resto. A glyph isn't the right way to deliver active mana return for a healer. It's not fair to shaman to have to take the glyph or to other healers who don't have that option. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Monk (Forums)Upcoming Windwalker Monk Changes
In an upcoming build we’re essentially doubling the healing (healing only, not damage) of Expel Harm. We’re also increasing the healing done by Chi Wave, Zen Sphere, and Chi Burst. We want the level 30 talents to be an interesting choice for all monks, but they should not become DPS rotational abilities in PvE for Windwalker monks, as it would complicate their rotations to a degree we aren’t comfortable with. Our vision for PvE Windwalkers in regards to Chi Wave, Zen Sphere, and Chi Burst is that you’ll use them rotationally or in replacement of Blackout Kick in situations where your survival is more important than DPS (say, in situations like Chimeron).

That said, Zen Sphere (and that talent tier) was never intended to be analogous to Recuperate, more so Word of Glory. Some mild to moderate self-healing is acceptable for the Windwalker in PvP, but it isn’t intended to be their forte. Their forte is intended to be their strong mobility and the fact that their damage is mostly upfront and instant, as they have very little to no periodic damage. (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Monk Mistweaver FeedbackSpinning Crane Kick does not proc Eminence!
It is a bug that Zen Sphere, Chi Burst or Chi Wave don’t proc Eminence. This has been fixed internally. We also put an AOE cap on Zen Sphere’s detonate. Chi Burst not generating Mana Tea stacks has also been fixed.

Cutting Edge Achievements
One of the blue posts tonight mentioned the new Cutting Edge achievements, which are awarded from doing an encounter without a debuff similar to the on active in Dragon Soul. These will be unavailable after a new tier of raids is introduced, and new achievements for the new raid tier will be added.

No raids the entire first week? And 2nd + 3rd Normal raids opened 35 days after expansion release. I am sorry but what the fuck is this? I mean... Is Blizzard trying to kill off every last guild that has some sense of competition so they can just stop making raids all together?

No raids the entire first week? And 2nd + 3rd Normal raids opened 35 days after expansion release. I am sorry but what the fuck is this? I mean... Is Blizzard trying to kill off every last guild that has some sense of competition so they can just stop making raids all together?

I think its a good idea, so you still have 1 raid to race for until the others come out. Less time spent racing unless there is a big road block that i am unaware. I dont think blizzard wants world first raiders to die irl because they spent x hours to lvl then xyz hours to get world first in all 3 raids.

No raids the entire first week? And 2nd + 3rd Normal raids opened 35 days after expansion release. I am sorry but what the fuck is this? I mean... Is Blizzard trying to kill off every last guild that has some sense of competition so they can just stop making raids all together?

lol Get a grip they are trying not to make mistakes with what happened last time and have people bored with a raid to soon and or trying to let the content last a bit longer. So what if it is a week for MSV then have the others open later.

No raids the entire first week? And 2nd + 3rd Normal raids opened 35 days after expansion release. I am sorry but what the fuck is this? I mean... Is Blizzard trying to kill off every last guild that has some sense of competition so they can just stop making raids all together?

So people will have to compete on the basis of skill rather than who can level to 90 fastest? Oh no!

Can the "only those that did it the hard way!" finally be quiet now with the "Cutting Edge" achievements being put in. One can argue that anyone can get a Heroic "Random Raid Boss Here" achievement - at least eventually; whereas these will be very restricted to those few that manage to do it faster and better than the unwashed masses below them, that they mock from their Ivory Tower.

No raids the entire first week? And 2nd + 3rd Normal raids opened 35 days after expansion release. I am sorry but what the fuck is this? I mean... Is Blizzard trying to kill off every last guild that has some sense of competition so they can just stop making raids all together?

You made no sense at all, seriously.

If you want competition, then why you dont let the other guilds catch up in terms of level and equipment. It'll be as competing as every content patch beginning.

It's because one group like Paragon or whatever (who represent the TINIEST portion of elite raiders) would clear the raids within two weeks and then the greener raiders (the ones who will spend the next months on normal) will complain that Blizz didn't make enough content before they even set foot in a raid.

As for the achievements, good news. Now the elitist raiders can feel like unique special snowflakes (which let's be honest is all they really wanted) and a wider audience can experience the raids.

Why not just release LFR right away? Like that one week matters... Looks more like an excuse to fall back on later than to actually cater to guilds.

And how nice that they want to pace content consumption but not want to artificially extend the life of the 5.0 content. Let's make it easier but not release more content but instead just pace it... At least you get to see all the content and it doesn't 'feel like a grind', that is untill you are experienced and faceroll through it.
Let's hope normal isn't cleared in one week time (by over 50% of all guilds and pugs) otherwise every group that doesn't want to do hardmodes can farm their asses off for a month.

Raiders complain they have to raid LFR to get the improvements.
They don't, really. The set bonuses are there in normal and heroic as well, and the item level is even higher.

Actually, in Mists of Pandaria, each new LFR tier will have an increased minimum ilevel requirement, so there'll be a natural progression path as the expansion goes on. This means that players will start running Heroic dungeons in order to gear up to hit the minimum ilevel for the first tier of LFR, then get gear from this first LFR tier to access the second, and so on.

However, it won't be mandatory to go through the LFR system if you're raiding normal or Heroic raids.

And since you'll probably ask, I'll answer pre-emptively, at this moment the developers are not ready to talk about possible 5-man Heroic dungeons with higher requirements that might come in future Mists of Pandaria patches.

I guess they don't play the game themselves.

There is no reason at all to not take such good gear by doing such an easy dungeon. The rewards are simply too high. Even if I was doing hardmodes I would still take 1 hour a week to finish LFR for a possible (insane) upgrade. Maybe I am missing a trinket or a tier piece that will give me the bonus, I would be an idiot if I passed on LFR.

Besides that, players who want to join a guild have to do LFR. No guild will accept someone who says "I don't do LFR. I will just stick with these shitty previous tier or even 5 man gear.", isn't this obvious after whole expansions and thousands of threads?

LFR should just be there to practice and see the content not to give you insane gear.

No raids the entire first week? And 2nd + 3rd Normal raids opened 35 days after expansion release. I am sorry but what the fuck is this? I mean... Is Blizzard trying to kill off every last guild that has some sense of competition so they can just stop making raids all together?

The Daily Blink is for you kid. I bet you don't think it is funny.

Also: 5 versions of items. I have a feeling this still won't make the Unique snowflakes happy. They got unique looking items in Challenge modes and we got complaints they are not powerful. Now we have powerful items and I am waiting for the complaints how they are not unique looking enough.

In the end for some it does seem to boil down to GTFO out of "my" raid content.

---------- Post added 2012-08-02 at 11:12 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Gilian

Let's hope normal isn't cleared in one week time (by over 50% of all guilds and pugs) otherwise every group that doesn't want to do hardmodes can farm their asses off for a month.

No matter what you might think or claim, normal was NEVER cleared by 50% of the guilds in the first week. Especially not by PuGs. Take a look at DS on wowprogression: After 6 months and a 30% debuff, 84% have cleared it on normal. There is no bloody way this % stood at 50% 5 months and 3 weeks ago.

LFR is a week after so those idiots who think it's "Required" to do, cant do it, and will have to do normal 1st. You would think this would make them happier but fat chance on that.
TBH I'm all for gating content, stops people no-lifeing the game for 20 hours straight all in the name of "Progression"

No matter what you might think or claim, normal was NEVER cleared by 50% of the guilds in the first week. Especially not by PuGs. Take a look at DS on wowprogression: After 6 months and a 30% debuff, 84% have cleared it on normal. There is no bloody way this % stood at 50% 5 months and 3 weeks ago.

Obviously I am talking about guilds that actually raid. 84% of ALL guilds killed normal deathwing 95% - 97% killed all the other bosses. 30-40% is already too much. I don't think 35% is a weird number when basically everyone cleared DS by now.

I said "Let's hope". I didn't claim shit. I just pulled a number out of my ass to make a point. Instead of discussing that point you have to go on about numbers, great.

Hm, those "Cutting Edge" Feats of Strenght look curious. Might make those people a little happier that recently ranted about everyone getting easy access to heroic raiding with those stacking debuffs. The debuff will still allow more casual guilds or guilds with a little lower skillcap to get things done, while the guys that cleared it early, or disabled the debuff later on can show off their feats of strenght. But i bet there will still be people complaining, as usual ^^ Anyway, i think it's a nice step in the right direction to handle those "community" issues with the raid nerfs.